1. Field of the Invention
This invention is an improvement of U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,489, issued in 1988 to Tarlow and Ridgley for an "Automatic Spice and Herb Dispenser", which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Evidently, since the filing of the above 1988 Patent, only one pertinant US Patent has appeared, 5,460,209, a dispenser of baking materials, issued to Jandura et al. Materials are spilled from a storage chamber onto two successive inclined surfaces, as each surface is agitated by a voice coil motor. This is a completely different approach to the problem solved by the present invention, and it does not include a simple measurement capability.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,967 to King, has a similarity to a feature of the 1988 parent of the present invention, but it is a feature that is eliminated in the present invention. King shows a central agitator (a helical auger) in the output spout of his dispenser. As will be shown below, removal of the central agitator of U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,489 has led to unexpected advantages.